Xosé Ramón Mariño Ferro

Category: Anthropologist
Birth Date: 9th January 1950
Birth Place: Castrofeito - O Pino
Correo electrónico: 
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 Curriculum

He took a degree in American Anthropology in the Faculty of Philosophy and Arts at the Complutense University (1974) and a doctor’s degree at the Autonomous University of Madrid with the thesis ‘Muerte, religión y símbolos en Chaquilla una comunidad quechua de la Altiplanicie boliviana’ (1984). He is a Professor of Cultural Anthropology in the Faculty of Philosophy at Santiago de Compostela University.

 Work & Activities

He did fieldworks in Bolivia and Galicia. As a result of his stay among Bolivian Indians, he wrote the monograph ‘Muerte, religión y símbolos en una comunidad quechua’. He also wrote the following books about Galician themes: ‘Antropoloxía de Galicia’, ‘Autobiografía dun labrego’ and several well-known tales. He studied several aspects of Galician and European popular culture in ‘Satán, sus siervas las brujas y la religión del mal’, ‘La medicina popular interpretada’, ‘Las romerías/peregrinaciones y sus símbolos’, ‘La medicina mágica’, ‘O entroido ou os praceres da carne’, ‘Los cuentos maravillosos’ and ‘El simbolismo animal’.

 Other Interesting Aspects

He is a member of several associations of anthropologists and participated in several research works financed by the Xunta de Galicia and the Ministry of Education. He is an expert in the study on simbolisms in the traditional culture, which lets him understand practices and belief considered as supersticious and irrational up to the moment such as witchcraft and popular medicine. In his works, he tells about a popular culture that has nothing to do with topics, for it shows functionality not only of material culture but only customs and belief normally considered as superstitions.